The iconic NASDAQ MarketSite video wall that sits in the NASDAQ broadcast studio in New York City's Times Square recently got an overhaul with an entire new visual system that includes 96 Christie Digital TotalView™; rear projection engines driven by 13 Vista Systems Spyders. At 44' in length and 14' high, the wall has become a symbol of the electronic market, with a split-level design that enables reporters to conduct reports from the floor and mezzanine levels. Originally built in 1999, the site debuted when the first Market Open was held in January 2000, with the goal of developing an epicenter for financial and business news in the heart of Manhattan.
The upgrade, specified by Christie Digital and installed by AV integrator McCann Systems, involved the two companies collaborating to design and retrofit an entirely digital system with custom screens and projectors that replaced the existing analog system. The new wall is now able to show a variety of sources, including still and moving video plus flying windows of any size or number, including a span across the entire lower-tier screen for a total pixel count of over 56 million. For the lower tier, Christie provided 72 TotalView RPMX-D120U rear projection engines and 40“ anti-reflective high contrast wide-angle screens configured in an 18×4 curved array. The upper mezzanine level features 24 TotalView RPMX-D120U rear projection engines and 50“ wide-angle screens in a 12×2 curved array. The upper wall boasts an image 40'-wide with a pixel count over 18 million.
The tiers are driven by 13 Vista Systems Spyders that offer one point of communication to control the entire display, allowing NASDAQ to configure multiple signal inputs to build dynamic presentations in the fast-paced trading environment. Clark Williams, vice president of windowing and compositing at Christie and president of Vista Systems, Inc. notes that the new system adds quite a lot of flexibility. “Presenters will no longer be limited to one image per cube but can create large multi-million pixel images anywhere and everywhere on the wall,” he says. The new technology delivers an increase of over 50% in pixel count from the previous wall, as well as improvements in brightness and contrast. The system is programmed on Vista software.
In addition, a new mini-wall — that also serves as a backup studio on the second floor event/press conference space — has been configured with eight TotalView RPMSP-D100Us in a 4×2 array and two Vista Systems Spyders. It displays an 18.7'-wide image of more than 11 million pixels across eight Christie CSP70 cubes.